Day 196: A Nail-Biter Travel Day from Mongolia to Hong Kong — Turbulence! Nearly-Miss Connection!

Today…was a grind. After a misty-eyed farewell with Ganzo and Zia at the UB airport, we turned our attention to the two flights ahead taking us to Hong Kong: China Air with a connection in Beijing.

For whatever reason, the UB airport folks couldn’t check all our bags through to Hong Kong, so we’d need to get our bags in Beijing and re-check them. The timing was tight so we were not that psyched about this development. Especially with everything we’ve heard about the Beijing airport being a beast.

We flew the first leg without incident — two hours to Beijing (bye Mongolia!!) — and scrambled to get through immigration and out to our bags in another terminal so we could turn it all around, re-check them and re-do security, immigration, blah blah, in time.

We never would have made it without a miracle: Our flight was delayed an hour. Sooooo lucky.

Here we are waiting to board. A familiar scene.

The flight to Hong Kong was turbulent, which really sucked. The only upside was….new season of Queer Eye!!!! I swear those episodes have saved me on bumpy rides. So pleasantly distracting.

We finally landed and got our bags. Notice the three of us standing in the one area where it says don’t stand here:

We finally stepped out into Hong Kong’s suffocatingly humid Friday night to catch a taxi to our hotel. Here are the kids waiting in the taxi line while Teddy had to go back to get cash. Taxis in Hong Kong don’t take credit cards!!

The driver drove like an insane person, and we again used feel-good videos to distract from the danger. This time, Tasty videos on Facebook. The kids were mesmerized.

As we were checking in at the hotel, James fell asleep on a lobby chair. More casual dozing from this boy.

We were all exhausted after this grueling day, and looking forward to a comfortable hotel bed and……nowhere to be tomorrow morning!!!!!  

Misc:

After guide-heavy stretches we are SO READY to be left alone for a while. Then, when we’re on our own too long, we’re SO READY for a guide to tell us where to go and what to do. Happy to have the mix.

It feels exciting to be in a big New York-like city. First one like it we’ve been to all year, I think? Feels like home, as Willa pointed out excitedly.

Funny how places that in 2018 might have sounded super foreign and faraway and challenging just…aren’t. Wonder if places like Mongolia would’ve felt more intimidating/far/crazy if we’d started there? These days we roll into a new city like, Stamp the passport, get the bags, hail the cab, chat with the driver, check in, eat food, walk around, do laundry, find playgrounds, make friends, bing bong no big deal.